to build ties with everyone because it could happen to anybody. speleology is the last activity in the world that allows us to uncover territories completely untouched by civilization. it's fabulous. all the mountains have already been climbed by one route or another, but underground there's still much to discover. today we still find new networks of 30, 40, even 50 kilometres. vitarelles is now officially sealed off from the world. the military zone is close to cavers. no one will explore the cave system any time soon. that is, unless cavers can find a new way in, to this day, many continue to search for that possible fissure, that possible crack that will lead them back

down into the abyss. if tomorrow we find a new entrance to that network, i will be the first to return. [ music ]

>> bill: hey, good morning, everybody. what do you say? happy friday. it is friday february 15th. good to see you today here on the "full-court press" as we come to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our radio studio and t.v. studio and book studio here on capitol hill in washington, d.c. we are going to tell you what's going on and take your calls at 866-55-press, and actually, there is a lot going on. president obama on the road again today, going to chicago and then down to west palm beach beach, florida where he will spend president's day weekend. for the first time in history, republicans have used a filibuster to block the nomination of a defense secretary. so we are in a war, and we have nobody running the pentagon. thank you, republicans. and meetteorites strike a town in russia's ural mountains.

let's get the update from lisa ferguson standing buy out in los angeles. >> hey, bill good morning, everyone. president obama is on the road but first off he is hosting the italian president who is ending his term in. this will serve as a fairrewell. he will speak at hyde park academy about his state of the union address and his plans to strengthen the middle class. he is spending time until palm city, florida. the president is pushing his plan for universal pre-school this week. but that could run into road blocks thanks to republican lawmakers who say early learning programs are not effective. >> that's despite an increasing amount of evidence on the benefits of childhood education programs, including higher high school graduation rates and reduced teen pregnancy and crime. some research actually suggests every single dollar invested in

pre-kinder garden programs saves $7 down the road because those kids are less likely to involve themselves in risky behave. last year, only about a quarter of the nation's preschoolers were enrolled and thet just wednesday, secretary of education, duncan said funding childhood programs is the best possible investmentment in education. more bill press coming up after the break. and, as always, join us in this our chat room. we would love to hear from you there, current.com/billpress. see you there.

billy zane stars in barabbas. coming in march to reelz. to find reelz in your area, go to reelz.com now find the most hard core driver in america. that guy, put him in it. what's this? [ male announcer ] tell him he's about to find out. you're about to find out. [ male announcer ] test it. highlight the european chassis 6 speed manual, dual exhaust wide stance, clean lines have him floor it, spin it punch it, drift it put it through its paces is he happy? oh ya, he's happy! [ male announcer ] and that's how you test your car for fun. easy.

[ music ] >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on

current tv. this is "the bill press show." >> well, it turns out the blade runner wasn't such a good guy after all. what do you say, everybody? good to see you on this friday. ♪ alleluia. >> you got it, friday february 15th ♪ alleluia >> bill: our favorite day around the full court press. you've got it. you bet, friday. any friday is a good friday as far as we are concerned. particularly this one. we head into a -- well for most people, it's a four-day weekend. we are going to be here on monday. and it may be somebody will be, too. but anyhow president's weekend, even the president is taking -- i think it's certainly fair and proper that the president take president's weekend off. after all, what's president's weekend all about? he will be in florida, playing

golf for sure. you know whatthat. to the weekend before not before we tackle the stories of the day today to bring you up to date on what's going on our nation's capitol, around the country and around the globe and give you a chance to talk about it, too. love to hear from you by phone at 866-55-press. 866-555-77377. love your comments on twitter@bp show and on facebook@facebook.com/billpress show. we are assembled to get into it with peter ogburn and dan henning. happy valentine's day after? >> valentine's hangover. >> phil back we can has the phones and cyprian boulding. everyone made it in t couldn't have been too wild. cyprian boulding on the videocam

for sure. what an event in russia last night. if you were living in the ural mount ages. this was like a science fiction movie really for real. >> crazy. >> a bunch of -- we talked about the after thestroidastroid, was going to pass by but meteors did it. [crashing sounds ] >> yeah. smashed into buildings in russia. and i saw that there were 400 people injured. mostly because what happened is, when these meteorites hit the buildings, the glass would shatter and fall onto bystanders >> bill: it didn't hit a remote area like sometimes these rocks. >> i just assumed. >> apparently people live in the

uram mountains. who would have thought >> bill: you he these people. imagine the stuff coming from the sky. it's like pretty scary. >> they were all over. it was a it was a meteor shower. there are a bunch of videos popping up on youtube of people catching the meteors. it looks like a movie >> bill: twitching. >> we will treat like catching >> bill: i thought you meant like with your bear hand. you are going to catch it. >> we will tweet these at. you see it coming at your car. it looks like a movie. it's real. >> bill: has that ever happened before? i guess it has? >> yeah. >> meteor showers happen? >> never happen to me. >> never happen to me. >> bill: you know, it's another reason not to live in russia. >> as if you needed another one >> bill: there are a lot of them. number 1 being vladimir putin.

>> he didn't stop them with his bear hands? >> he tried to send bruce willis up, but he was in the middle of debuting an awful movie >> bill: we will talk about climate change with the director of the sierra club as well as sports blogger from the washington post quibble become one of our favorite guests cindy borein excited about that. talk to a couple of reporters from politico and u.s.a. today to round it out on this friday morning, yes, the republicans blocking the nomination of chuck hagel as they threaten to do. they did it successfully etted yesterday for the time being. but first, this is the full court press. >> om this friday, other headlines making news, president obama did what any good man would do for valentine's day. took his wife out to dinner. >> i thought you didn't celebrate valentine's day.

>> not any good man except myself. i had franks and beans on the couch in front of the t.v. f it was perfect. i love it. a little mustard. >> come on. get with your thing here? >> what? he asked. >> bill: i don't want to hear about franks and beans i want to hear about obama and where did they go for dinner? >> i am about to tell you if you stop interrupting me. this is my two minutes. >> bill: oh oh. this show. >> we want to critically acclaimed jose andre's mini bar. it only takes six people per seating, not too far from the white house. no word on what they ate yet, but 20-course meals there. >> mini. >> they are mini plates. 20 of them. >> it might be the most exclusive restaurant in

washington, d.c. >> these 20 coarsers start at about the 225 bucks. earlier in the day, the president was in georgia. he said he could get roses for the rose garden although not true this time of year. >> no. >> since it's winter. he did get her flowers. >> i have been in the rose garden. there are no roses in the rose garden. >> you know how you get reservations at mini bar? people who will aren't the president at the mini bar. one month before you would like to dine there, you have to call them at 9:00 in the morning and you have to reserve your spot. and so everybody calls. it always sells out, though. >> bill: i have to tell you i don't want to eat in a restaurant that has only six seats. >> yeah >> bill: you know, i might as well stay home. >> uh-huh. >> weather delays are common in sporting events but the lpga had a new kind of delay at the australia open. >> meteorites? >> they had to stop when a mob

of kangaroos hopped across the greenways. u.s.a. reporting no balls were taken by the kangaroos, but if they would have, there would have been no penalty >> bill: i saw a photograph of that. i am looking for it in "the new york times" now. it was so funny. you know here, i've often had to stop for wild turkeys crossing. or a deer. >> or the freakin' geese or one time in florida, it was like six iguanas. >> i had to do an alligator in south carolina. >> cagearookangaroos. >> a milestone for sesame street is about to reach the 1 billion view mark on youtube. >> that's the first for a nonprofit or a children's t.v. program. they are, of course, making a teaching moment out of it.

expect count von count to be involved. >> counting down tanya billion. >> the final number to get to a billion. yesterday they had under 20 million to go. interesting to note sesame street is now as likely to be seen online as it is on television by children. >> bill: thank you, dan. that was more than two minutes but anyway here we go. they did it. they did it t remember a couple of weeks ago, right in the all of this buildup about reforming the filibuster or getting rid of the filibuster so it could not be abused the way it is. they came up with instead a very, very weak answer. harry reid caved into the republicans on this, i hate to say it. sol many democrats were saying this is going to be fine because now, we all agree that you need

60. we didn't get rid of it. they can use it. they don't have to come to the floor and talk at that talk, but it's going to work. it's going to work because republicans have greedp agreed they will filibuster for stuff that's really important. when harry reid and mitch mcconnell agree this is really worth it. damn if, we said at the time this was phony, it was not going to work, it was not going to make any change. republicans were going to abuse it. they would never abide by that agreement. two weeks ago. republicans trotted it out yesterday, put a filibuster on the nomination of chuck hagel to be our next secretary of defense, and they won. you need 60 votes to get over

it. and the most they could get with the democrats and four republicans was 58 votes t he lost by one vote. harry reid ended up having to vote no. that way, by voting know he has the right to bring this back up for another vote when they come back from president's day weekend, which he will, and hopefully by that time, some republicans, one more republican, will have come to his or her senses. at any rate, it was the 55 democrats, 55 democrats and independents and four republicans came up to 59. harry reid voting no. that made it 58. so chuck hagle was not confirmed. and leon panetta is out. so we have no secretary of defense for the next 10 days and in the middle of at war. harry reid pointed out yesterday, this was his first. >> first time in the history of

our country, if secretary of defense had been filibustered successfully >> bill: there is no doubt who is to blame. mitch mcconnell didn't do anything to stop it. >> to. >> just when you thought things couldn't get worse, it gets worse. >> bill: shocking, said the majority leader. >> shocking that my republican colleagues would leave the nation without a fully empowered secretary of defense during all of the things we have going on in the world including a war. >> that's the point president obama made yesterday on his google hangout that he did yesterday afternoon when he came back from decatur, georgia. i mean we've got a freakin' war going on and we don't have anybody running the pentagon. >> it's unfortunate that this kind of politics intrudes at a time when i am still presiding over a war in afghanistan and i need a secretary of defense who is coordinating with our allies

to make sure that our troops are getting the kind of strategy and mission that they deserve. >> you think. >> done. >> don't you think like the commander in chief picks up the phone and calls the pentagon. right? and the phone just rings and rinse and rings. so nobody answers. nobody there. it is just outrageous. first of all, look. chuck hagle we have been over this so many times. it's a great nominee to be secretary of defense. he is a veteran. he is a member of a very -- he is a war hero. and has served on the senate armed services committee veteran of the senate. his crime was, for republicans, he disagreed, turned -- voted for the war in iraq and then turned, realized it was a mistake. it was the wrong thing and he was very critical of the bush administration, the bush war in iraq. well, who the hell wasn't with any common sense?

right? republicans have turned against him with these bothus things he made up that he might have given a speech that is anti-israel or all of this or he might have, you know, taken more money for his speech than he should have gotten. all kind of baloney reasons. they think he betrayed them by opposing the war in iraq. is there anybody around today who thinks the war in iraq was a good idea? anybody who thinks there really were weapons of mass destruction in iraq? its crazy but for the republicans to do this. and then what really is disingenuous about it, they insist two things. one, they need more time, they said. oh, you know, because he was just approved by the senate armed services committee like two days ago. so we can't vote him now. we just need more time. >> that's ridiculous. nobody believes that. then other they they say is, this isn't a filibuster. no. this is a hold.

we are not calling it a filibuster. therefore, it is not a filibuster. you know what? as outraged as i am at the republicans on this, i am equally outraged at the democrats, particularly harry reid who had a chance to tighten up the filibuster and make it impossible to pull these kind of tricks and he failed and now democrats are getting a taste of their own medicine. but you know what? at a time iranians are setting a precedent here that they are going to regret because if republicans can use a filibuster to block a democratic president's nominee for the cab cabinet t you bet that means from now on, no matter who is in the white house democrats and the senate can use the same weapon, and they will and they should. chuck hagel, republicans and the filibuster. what do you think? what can we do about it? 866-55-press. let's talk about it here on the "full-court press" this friday morning. >> this is "the full court

press: the bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv. [ music ] for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

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alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

[ music ] >> heard around the countritrine and seen on current tv this is "the bill press show" >> bill: 25 minutes after the hour now. i have to tell you that phrase "i told you so," you know, it drives you crazy when people say that. but there are sot senators now who have the full right to say today, i told you so. tom eudall, geoff merkley, she

wouldn'ton whitehouse, tom harkin and others who are saying, this is the time we've got to reform this filibuster because republicans will continue to abuse it, and harry reid in the end said -- it seemed like he agreed with it at one point. he banned down and agreed to this water,000-down compromise version der derwhere he and mitch mcconnell would have to agree something was important enough. mitch mcconnell stabbed harry reid in the back, stabbed americans in the back as far as i am concerned but they used it yesterday to block the nomination. it's the first time ever that the senate has said the president does not have the right to appoint members of his own cabinet. a war going on and no secretary of defense. what are our -- what do friends think about this? >> on twitter @bp show david gad scenario says charlie brown, kick the football. i won't pull it away again. like that.

senator reid says he deserved it for not getting filibuster reform done. bark weigh says the so-called gentlemense gentlemens' agreement. >> why would harry reid trust these republicans? it is like lucy and the football. >> there was a time i think this could have possibly worked a gentleman's agreement, both sides of the aisle working together. >> bill: 100 years ago? >> a long time. >> battle creek michigan caroline, good morning. >> yes. i want to say that harry reid needs to apologize to the president and to the american people for not doing something about the filibuster when he had the chance to do it. >> bill: i think you are right. absolutely. i mean there is no explaining it. you know it was the younger generation of senators who were just in there and they see the abuse and they said we have to

fix them. then you have the old farts and harry reid and mitch mcconnell and saying the senate is such a venerable institution, we can't tinker with it. it's not a venerable institution. it's a broken institution. it's a broken system because of this filibuster. and again, to use a filibuster for this purpose and then to deny that they are using a filibuster. nobody looks good in this. the other guy -- the only guy who looks good is chuck hagel. it's going to be defense secretary. you know he is going to be pretty pissed off at the nature too. >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] you know the kind of guys who do like verse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. >> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me.

>> absolutely! >> and so would mitt romeny. >> she's joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv.

[ music ]

>> chatting with you live at currents.com/bill press show this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. . >> all right. how about it? 33 minutes after the hour here on friday morning, february 15th, republicans use the filibuster first time in history, to block a nomination for a secretary of defense. so much for that great big filibuster reform harry reid was so proud of two weeks ago. i told you it was a piece of crap. turned out that it is. the very, very very first time that it comes up at a time when supposedly mitch mcconnell and harry reid are going to have to agree that this is significant enough to use a filibuster mitch mcconnell is ab cent without leaf can't be found and harry reid caves in again. we have a war, but we have no secretary of defense and there won't be another vote on this until february 26th.

what do we do about it? what do you think? 866-55-press. back to your calls and comments. i want to give a shoutout first to melissa. melissa is our incomeathome.com winner for the day: we have been hearing for people who took our advice to check on income at home and start earning extra money from home. melissa is one she felt she was working too many hours for not enough pay spending too much away from her home. she signed up and now she reports that she has doubled what she earned in her own job. she sets her own hours. she is home for her kids and she loves being able to earn the extra money from her own kitchen table with her own laptop. way to go, melissa. maybe you could be our next shot out hero. working long hours at a job that you do not like, look into like

melissa did, income at home.com. incomeathome.com. >> that's incomeathome.com. love to hear from you. >> one quick comment, this is a con contrarian view. >> i am okay with the federal filibuster. it willloo let's reed look stupid and let's obama run against obstructionism. it points out how screwed up this is. >> i here that and it's bad for the country and the political system. a couple of points the headline in "the new york times" is, g.o.p., front page g.o.p. blocks vote on hagel in the senate. i was thinking when i saw that that sort of sums up everything we have read about the republican party for the last five years. headline always g.o.p. blocks. g.o.p. kills. g.o.p. opposes.

have you ever seen a headline in the last five years where the freakin republican party does anything positive? no. >> it's a good point. >> it is a party of no. it's always get in the way. get in the way. get in the way of every good idea. the other thing i want to point out is i ran into former senator kent conrad last night and current senator max bachus last night. we were having dinner in the same restaurant with our wives, valentine's day and senator bachus said he is convinced chuck hagel will be the next secretary of defense, that they will have another vote on february 26th, and a couple of republicans will feel they have done their thing, they have delayed it for 10 days and they will vote for it. let me give you see a couple of examples. orrin hatch, lost by one vote. harry reid had to vote know so he could bring it back the they had 59 votes. so the 60th vote could have been

orrin hatch, but orrin hatch from utah said no, he couldn't vote for hagel but he also couldn't vote know because voting no would have sent the wrong message. vote can no would have said that we are -- it's okay to obstruct the nomination of a cabinet secretary and block a president from appointing whom he wants in his cabinet. so orrin hatch voted present. by voting present, he voted no. so this is just kind of a double talk you get from these double dealingly republicans. then harry reid who caves in and let's them continue to abuse the filibuster. jerry is up in liberty maine. hey, jerry. >> hey, bill. i tell you i have been so pissed off at harry reid. i think he sold the country out, myself and has nra stamped on his forehead. >> he had the votes to reform the filibuster.

right? he did. there were enough republicans all they needed in the beginning of the session every, you know, in january of every year when they start a new congress all they needed was 51 votes. he had 55 votes. didn't use it. yeah. so what do we do jerry? >> i think to get him out of the position he has gotten in leadership for the democratic party, he is a weak leader. they need to get somebody in that's going to represent the country basically. >> yeah. i like harry reid as a person but he let us down on this one, too many times. joey out in chicago. hey, joey. how have you been? >> good. i can't believe that -- >> bill: allegation nice to hear from you t you have to remember you are on national radio and -- >> have a good weekend >> bill: national television. happy president's weekend. jim out in las vegas. jim, what do you say?

>> bill, i am a big democrat here, organizer of 300 people, democratic leader group. we talked to harry reid. we sent him e-mails. we called his office two years ago. he got an agreement with mr. o'connell. well, once again, it's like charlie brown, man. it's exactly like it. >> it's so funny how many people are making the comparison between harry reid and charlie brown because it's really pretty accurately. >> it is a perfect comparison. jim, i know, look harry reid would not be where he is today. we remember that senate race. right in the against sharon engle and that was a tough race and it's the unions in vegas and the democrats in nevada that pulled that out for hill. right? he has to recognize that. why did he turn his back on us?

right? >> like that -- he's not that stupid of a man. he is a smart man. i don't understand it. >> he is. absolutely. the entire nation is begging for filibusters. they see what's happening. they see the abuse. right? no matter which party does it but it's been the republican party. >> that's all they have done is block, blah can, block using the fill bester. i appreciate your good efforts out there. i wish it paid off in getting some tough filibuster reform. all of those young senators geoff merkley and tom eudall sheldon white house and a veteran, veteran, tom hankins has been leading this charge to reform the filibuster for years they can say, i told you so. yeah, you agreed to a deal where mitch mcconnell would have a say, you would count on mitch mccogto make a determination that this was of such

significance and only in those limited cases would they use a filibuster. the very first time they had an opportunity, we see mitch mcconnell had stabbed us in the back. harry reid let them do it. paul is out in brighton michigan good morning. >> all right. pretty upset this morning. >> i want to thank you for something. i have been a recovering republican for over 20 years now. you and paul on crossfire helped me out. >> one day at a time buddy. one day at a time. >> bill: there was some good news there, paul. thank you. ? >> yeah. >> i think everyone is being too hard on harry reid because you have to remember, the republicans have a stranglehold on the house anyway. maybe he is just being practical. >> in this case, though, paul, the house has nothing to do with the cabinet nominations, you know the advice and consent is totally in the senate. chuck hagel, john brennan none of them, none of them have to be approved by the house. this is strictly a senate job.

>> i realize that. i am saying, you know, why should he fight against the filibuster when there is nothing -- it's not going to get through the house. >> you fight against the filibuster, paul, to make the senate work. they should still be doing their job and then, you know maybe we would fix the house, too. although the house is operating under this hastert rule. it's the house equivalent of the filibuster. but i don't think -- i appreciate the call, paul. i don't think you can let harry reid off of the hook by saying action well, nothing would get through the house anyway. this nomination did not have to get through the house. can't use that excuse here bill is in newport richie florida. what do you say? >>. >> good morning. how are you? >> bill: good. thanks. >> caller: you made a comment about the system is broken. i would take it from the occupy movement the system is not broken. it is fixed. it is so rigged we could never undo it and this affects

everything. $9 an hour? we will never get it. overturning united citizens united we will never get it. go on down the line. we are just not going to get the things that we had hoped. >> yeah. i appreciate the play on words. in one way, we have to fix the system. in the other way, you are right. it is already fixed. it's fix because of the deal between harry reid and mitch mcconnell which is now exploded and blown up in democrats' face. again, republicans are wrong to use the filibuster to block chuck hagel but democrats opened the door, gave them the green light to do it. so harry reid has nobody but himself to blame. on your radio and on current t.v. this is "the bill press

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>> this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. ? >> thurnling minutes before the top of the hour, we have been talking about chuck hagel being filibustered yesterday in the united states senate by republicans. of course, they were able to do so because harry reid let them do it by failing to pass and approve a strong filibuster reform a couple of weeks ago. but with all of the big news this week, state of the union and everything else, everybody's attention almost has been diverted down to the gulf of mexico where this carnival

cruise ship was adrift and some 4,000 people stranded on it while they drifted and then towed it into mobile alabama under unbelievabley hard conditions. they arrived last night and greeting them in mobile alabama was u.s.a.'s today cruise blogger gene sloan who joins us on a news line from mobil, alabama on a line this morning. how are you? >> i am doing all right. >> bill: what was the state of the people when they crawled off of the ship yesterday? >> you know, it was a mix. people are happy to be back on land. >> yeah. >> it was a surprise, you know, some people had some pretty bad horror stories and were no at you will that happy. >> did they stink? >> i think they cleaned up a little before getting off.

dled some stories. >> how bad were the conditions on the ship actually? they didn't have -- i mean i've heard toilets, running water. tell us what you heard. >> when the fire happened the power went down. the toilets went out. that cut the lights out to the ship. the air conditioning was a big issue because it got hot. food was a problem without the power to be able to cook things. there was a real limit on what they could serve. so they could get some ships to drop off supplies. >> i saw a photo of people camping out on the deck. right? >> particularly people, some of the lower cabins t sounded like from talking to people getting off of the ship they almost immediately after the power went

out, you had toilets mal functioning, and sewage coming up through the shower drains and the sinks and toilets of cabins and overflowing onto the carpets. not in every cabin but people like that they slept in deck chairs. >> here is jerry cahill. you were probably there at the news conference when he apologized. he is the head of carnival cruise lines. he apologized yesterday. let's listen to him quickly. i have a few questions. >> i would like to reiterate the apology i made earlier. i know the conditions on board were very poor. i know it was very difficult. i want to apologize again for subjecting our guests to that. we pride ourselves in providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case.

>> bill: boy, did they ever. now, first of all, how are they going to compensate? how many people were on the ship? about 4,000? >> well, over 4,000 total, but they had about a thousand was crew. you are looking at over 3,000, i think 100 passengers. >> bill: okay. how are they going to compensate those 3,000 people? >> well carnival moved pretty quickly, early, within a day and said we are going to, you know, give you all of your money back for this trip. we are very sorry. and then shortly, they came out and said in addition to that, we are going to give you a full, you know, a future cruise, you can come back and we will give you another cruise. >> they get to relive this nightmare? >> yeah. you heard from some passengers coming off of the ship, you know, thanks for the free cruise, but i am never coming

back. >> yeah. you get a free cruise and you get ptsd. >> that's it. one lady said today, if anyone wants to buy it, please call me. >> bill: what does this mean for the cruise industry? you had the ship in italy that went aground. there was a fire on a cruise ship not so long ago. one was stranded off of the west coast, i know, that lost power again, i think, and then this this one. what does it mean for the industry? >> it's funny. what's happened in the past there that been this unusual string of this. you go years without something like this happening and then it seems like the last couple of years, there has been a bunch of this kind of stuff happening. we have seen the impact, especially a year ago where bookings did drop significantly. they came back. people have a short memory with this kind of thing.

you wouldn't expect it. we will see with this one because now with the back to back, we've had a few of these in a row. there is a question of has it hit some kind of itipping point? >> bill: it seems already more ships and bigger ships and, you know, the chances for something like this have increased exponentially. thank you for joining us. you can follow gene sloan of course at usatoday.com and on print operator @cruiselog. hope to talk to you again but don't look for me on any one of these big cruise ships. i tell you i would never take at that carni value cruise -- carnival cruise. >> scary, man. >> this is "the bill press show."

i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> taking your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is "the bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> climate change at the top of the next hour and then we will be joined by washington post sports blogger cindy boren, big hour coming up on the chuck hagel filibuster. glenneda says, it's on harry nobody else. robert as hagle would have passed with flying colors. the whole idea behind unwarranted filibustering is to

destroy the democratic party. ann lamb piles on, the 113th congress is the most useless bunch of humanity on the fares of the earth. off to a good start to get that nomination. and richard maxwell wants us to know the mccrane-graham's attempt at humiliating our president during the hagel confirmation was reprehensible. it is but democrats let them get away with it. >> this is "the bill press show."

[ music ] >> bill: what do you say? good morning, everybody. great to see you this friday morning, february 15th. it's the full court press coming to you all the way across this grade land of ours. good to have you with us. thanks for joining the program. welcome. boy, a lot to talk about this morning because there is a lot going on. president obama on the road again today going to chicago and then down to west palm beach florida where he will spend weekend for the first time in history. republican senators have used a filibuster. pardon me. filibuster to block a cabinet nominee. secretary of defense nominee chuck hagel. american american airlines has merged with u.s. air to create our largest airline. as if that's not enough, a whole bunch of meteorites have slammed into a town in the ural mountains of russia. we will look at that and more on the full court fritz.

first, off we go out to los angeles to check in with the latest current news update from lisa ferguson. hi, lisa. good morning. >> hey, bill. good morning, everyone. as we have been talking about, chuck hagel is making history as the first presidential appointee ever to be blocked from the secretary of defense position. just last night, senators failed to move forward on hagel's nomination. the procedural vote was 58 to 40 falling two votes shy of the six he needed to break the fill filibuster filibuster. you thought you were lucky with one day off. the senators get a whole week. they won't be back in session until next monday, february 25th, meaning hagel's next vote is delayed at least until then. that gives republicans 10 full days including financial disclose user and speech transcripts. even lindsey graham who admits he is not expecting to find much

information and the filibuster shouldn't last much longer. climate change, this is something the president hinted at tuesday during his state of the union. someone asked him again about that yesterday during his googleplus chat. the president responded saying getting anything through congress will be tough but alluded some executive actions he could take liken forcing buildings, appliances and power plants. the meteor shower hitting russia causing quite a bit of damage. russian times saying more than 700 people are seeking medical attention so far but thankfully so far, no deaths. more bill is up after the break. stay with us. you know who's coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys who do like verse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. >> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> you would rather deal with

ahmadinejad then me. >> absolutely! >> and so would mitt romeny. >> she's joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv. stop looking at car interiors. get inspired by other stuff. yep. yep. ok. sure. why not? woah. touchscreens. put that in your dash. now, luxury stuff. make your seats like that. that thing has wifi, why doesn't your car? you can't do that. ignore that guy. give it wifi. yes! make it fit 5 people. no, 5 actual sized people. give them leg room, good. destroy boring car interiors forever. and that's how you do it. easy. ♪ ♪

>> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on

current tv. this is the bill press show. >> bill: well, it turns out that the bladerunner wasn't such a nice guy after all. i know innocent until proven guilty. >> jerk >> bill: doesn't look good. what do you say, everybody? good morning. good morning. it's good to see you today. welcome to the "full-court press." coming to you live across this great land of ours on your local progressive talk radio station. how lucky you are if you've got one and on current tv bringing you up to date on the news of the day and of course giving you a chance to get involved in the conversation. let us know what these issues we are talking about mean to you. your comments worth anything i have to say anything about them give us a call. >> that's one way to get engaged or follow us on twitter and give us your comments on twitter twitter @bpshow. >> that's our hash tag.

>> it's our handle >> bill: that's the word i was looking for and on facebook at facebook.com/bill press show. this sunday, a huge big demonstration on the washington mall. americans in support and demanding action by congress and the president on climate change led by, among others the sierra club, michael break room in studio with us this morning. hike michael, nights to have you on? >> thank you for having me on. >> we are joining our team. peter ogburn and dan henning? >> happy friday >> bill: with phil back we can. he is somewhere. >> mopping the floors. >> he's got the phones and cyprian boulding has the video cam. it was valentine's yesterday. i hope we all remembered it. certainly the president remembered it even though he spent a little bit of time out of town but down in decatur

georgia, he made clear to the crowd that heni that he had to get back in washington and why he had to get back. >> you know, i can't imagine a more romantic way to spend valentine's day. >> with all of you, with all of the press here actually michelle says hello. >> she made me promise to get back in time for our date tonight. >> that's. >> that's important. i've already got a gift. got the flowers. i was telling folks, the flowers are a little easier though because i've got this rose garden. >> i can tell you, there are no roses in the rose garden this time of year. i was there a couple of days ago. but, the president so he and the first lady we want out last night to this very elite little restaurant in washington, the mini bar. right? where peter, you were saying they have -- >> it's jose andre's restaurant

dc's biggest celebrity chef. if you want to get a reservation, you have to call exactly one month b you would like to go, when it opens at 9:00 a.m. and get your reservation although i think the president probably had an in somehow. it's hundreds of dollars. sit down and serve you 20 courses of two or three-bite food. it's all very frilly and fancy. it is the hardest reservation to get in the washington. >> it ain't five guise. >> it ain't fivegize. >> we went out last night, too, but not -- not to the mini bar. i am sure they took it over. >> i imagine so. i have never eaten there. it's a counter that over looks the kitchen and six seats. so the two of them, the kids and bo? >> it might have been. i would have a hard time.

>> mr. robinson the mother-in-law. >> they would have four other people dine with them. that would would be really weird. >> i am glad to know you have never eaten here from what i hear, from what it costs, i would say maybe we better take another look. we are paying you too damn much. michael broom to talk keystone pipeline and climate change, very, very important issues both one issue really. we will take your calls about that, too. barbara. i'm sorry. simmed e boren with the sports blogger with the washington post is going to join us at the half hour and the next hour we talk with tim mac from politico. but first the good stories. >> a quick check, talking about the president's restaurant. i have to mention this story. one of obama's favorite burger joints has closed its doors for good. it is not five guys, huffington post saying ray's hell burger has closed two locations in

village because of disputes with its landlord. obama has been there with joe biden and with the president of russia: ray's chain down to 1 has a cult following. >> i always wanted to go there. >> better hurry. >> i hope they resolve the dispute. >> world peace is coming to congress. that would be meta of the los angeles lakers the hill reporting the nba former formerly known as ron artess will be on capitol hill to help promote the mental health in schools alongside grace napalitano. the press release promoting the event calls him mr. world peace. >> i don't like that guy very much but he has done a lot of good for mental health.

he really has. when they won the championshipship. i want to thank my mom. i want to thank my dad. i want to thank my psychiatrist. >> never wanting to miss an opportunity, marco rubio trying to capitalize his water bottle moment. his political action committee is sending specially labeled water bottles to anyone who donates $25 or more to them. the website says send the liberal detractors a message that not only does marco rubio inspire you he hydrates you as well. >> give a politician an opportunity to exploit something for cash. michael broom, you and many of your friends were down at the whitehouse on wednesday. right in the for civil disobedience this is the first time the sierra club has engaged

in this? >> we were there to protest the tar sands, the keystone excel pipeline, a pipeline being proposed to come down from the tar sands in alberta all the way to the country and most of the oil would be exported. our concern is that in addition to the water impacts and health impact did of this really toxic oil, it's a lot more carbon intensive. than conventional oil. so in a year after raging droughts, wildfires, intense floods, heat waves, super storm sandy, the the deracho, years our temperature was a full degree above the previous record we should not be investing in carbon fuel services. we shouldn't make the problem worse when we need to get off of fossil fuels as quickly as we

can. >> made the decision this was worth getting arrest the for? >> the sierra club is an old institution, 120 years old. no entire time we never participated civil disobedience. we tried every other too many democracy has to offer, lobbying grassroots, doing work with folks like yourself in the media. but when we need to start to turn away from fossil fuels, we have to use every tool that democracy has to offer. we have to do everything that we can to just wrest this country away from its dependence on fossil fuels. you don't have to have an act of congress to reject it or to get a bill passed. one person makes the decision. president obama makes the decision. and we decided to engage in civil disobedience because it's been used effectively. >> president obama makes the

decision. the reference comes from the secretary of state. >> that's right. >> bill: john kerry has been a great champion of climate reform legislation for years and years and years. so, are you counting on john kerry to block this at the state department? >> the state department -- the president said this is his decision. he is keeping this decision. so the state department is now doing what's known as a supplemental environmental impact statement, basically evaluating what it will be. and our climate. >> make a recommendation to the white house? >> they likely will but they are going to leave room for the president to go in any direction he uses to passionate power of articulation for action on climate.

state of the union another strong articulation for the needs to take strong action. ma is interesting is that there is an enormous amount of executive authority that the president has the president is the decision who will make this to decide whether or not shell will get to drill in the arctic next year. arctic drilling didn't happened under the range al under a democratic administration. >> isn't shell trying to drill up there. >> they tried. it was a comedy of errors. they attempted to drill a couple of exploratory wells. >> uh-huh. were unsuccessful. now e they are gearing up to go back again next summer when the ice -- when the ices moves away. >> there is more. >> there is a lot of when you think of all of the extreme energy sources in this country, starting with the tar sands,

arctic drilling liquefy natural gas exports. what's happening now is fracking is taking plates in our country sides under our schools, across the country. a lot of this another carbon intensive process. the president has ability to squash this and make sure we are not using our gas and using clean energy here at hope. the other thing i would highlight is mountaintop removal. the president has an opportunity toy to say we are not blowing up our mountains for small amounts of coal in appalachia. instead, we can invest in clean energy >> bill: i have heard one other thing that has to be on the president's agenda, actually lisa jackson or whoever is the head of epa existing power plants? >> of course. shame on me for not mentioning that. >> that's a rule that will come through epa. it will be introduced.

it's a rule that will regulate the green house gas emissions, the carbon xloouings that comes from power plants and refineries across the country. over the last couple of years, we have been able to secure the retirement of about 135 existing power plants mostly because those power plants don't have modern pollution controls for mercury, soot, smog. they can't compete with clean energy sources. so this lull would help us. >> bill: all of these things are actions that the president kate take and should take independent of any action of congress? can't filibuster these actions? >> no. what is coming up on sunday then on the mall here in washington? >> sunday will be the largest rally on climate change in u.s.

history. the first buses will be leaving from nebraska where this pipeline would go through. i have been talking with chapters and activists from almost everywhere east of colorado, and you know spiring. a couple of buses from nebraska a few from min societynesota, by musicians from the prairie home companion. five buses from maine, florida, michigan gathering on the mall this sunday, to primarily to inspire the president. he has inspired us. we want to inspire him to make sure that his ambition meets the scale of this challenge, that we are a radiot standing up to big polluters. we want to show the president we have his back every time he stands up for clean energy and turns away from dirty fuels we will be there with him challenging polluters to help this country move toward clean

energy. >> which is important because you know there are going to be equal forces on the other side saying they are going to destroy the economy. we have heard those for a long time. if there was ever time to act on climate change after what we saw last year, take a quick break, michael. come back. we have talked about this issue so much on the program, it's the paramount challen, i think, facing this country, facing this plantet. your calls and comments welcome at 866-55-press. not too rate to get on a bus or train, yourself, and get here for february 17, 866-557-7377. we will be right back. >> this is the bill press"the bill press show" show." [ music ] real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

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alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

[ music ] >> this is "the full court press: the bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv-by-25 minutes after the hour now, talking climate change talking keystone pipeline with michael brun the executive director of the sierra club the big rally, talkicking place on the washington mall this sunday. if you are anywhere near the washington area, get there. valentine's dinner, my wife carol, said, by the way, i am going down to the mall on sunday . >> all right. >> so she will be there in the crowd. >> she has been arrested several times. if anything happens. >> this is not the civil

disobedience. a quick story. >> a couple of hours ago the carnival cruise ship, all of the pings are off but carnival cruise decided to live tweet the disembarkation from the people of their ship. people were watching the videos tweeted, the carnival triumph as people were coming up they had their bath robes on. it says of course the bath robes are complementary. they weren't going to come after them for the bath robes. they were sort of saying half of the people are off. we are proud of our crew who worked so hard to keep our guests comfortable during their journey home. >> yeah. man, talk about another subject talk about the cruise industry sometime. not exactly eco-tourism. not at all. where does the united states stand in terms of action on climate change? we are about the bottom of the list. aren't we?

>> you are not going to believe this. actually, in the last seven years, the united states has reduced greenhouse gas emissions more than any other country. >> bill: i don't believe that. how? >> it's true. >> two reasons we are using oil because of regulations put forth by obama. soon after he came in, he tightened up the fuel economy standards for cars and last year, he down so fuel economy will double by 2025. at the beginnings of that are starting to take effect already. generally the economy has been slower and getting more efficient. but the big reasons is that what i was saying earlier, a lot of comb coal plants are being replaced. a lot of solar is coming in wind coming on, and a little bit of gas as well. our emissions now are where they were back in 1992, and they are

continuing to drop. we've got a long way to go. >> that's the best news i have heard about climate change yet. the sierra club, if you can't get there on sunday, try to get there to the washington mall. i am joining michael brune in crowd. if you can't, go to see arrayclub.org. i am sure on your website you have all kinds of ways people can participate and help put the pressure on obama to do the right thing. >> thank you for having me on. >> bill: he can go strong because we've got his back. we will be right back and talk sports. >> this is "the bill press show." . like verse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. >> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me.

>> absolutely! >> and so would mitt romeny. >> she's joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv.

>> chatting with you live at current.com/billpress, this is "the bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> thirty 3 minutes after >>-three minutes after the hour. we are coming to you life across our nation's capitol across this great land of ours on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv and, you know, we have a new fan club here on the full court press. we are now all members of the cindy boren fan club. totally >> bill: as of a couple of weeks ago. >> despite the fact she picked the 49ers over baltimore. >> and you lost the shirt. right? bill but it was not an enthusiastic pick. right. right. we talked with cindy several times early lead sports blogger

for the washington post. she joins us in studio this morning. great to see you? >> great to be here. the coffee is good. >> you are the first guest to ever say that. literally. we are knownotorious for having terrible coffee a sports journalist >> bill: oscar pistorious. it was just a few months ago, we were all singing this guy's praises praises. we are deet baiting whether he should be allowed to compete. he is a hero. right? wow. >> when they fall -- they fall fast in sports. don't they? >> it turns out this guy, innocent untilproven guilty but he is charged with murder of his girlfriend. >> and pre-med tated murder. >> really? >> the prosecutor said they have upped it to pre-medtation. >> bill: the story he thought she was an intruder doesn't stand up? >> that's the prosecutor's side but yeah it would seem to be

kind of a squishy story. >> the south african police say this is not the first time they have been called to his residence for it? >> they are keeping that close to the vest and we haven't heard the tapes of that. reminds me a little of the whole o. j. simpson we will see what the previous acts were and that's still all to come out. it's going to be held. i think -- well they continued his bail hearing. that will be continued until tuesday. they will keel help in a police station, not in a prison. >> the spokesperson for the south african police dan. first the report can. >> there was a shooting incident this morning at the home of the well-known para olympic athlete pristori.

ous. a 50-year-old woman did die on the scene of gunshot wounds. a 26-year-old man has been charged with murder. >> that was the first story that came out. a 26-year-old man has been arrested at his home. you had the impression at first it was like somebody else. >> someone else >> bill: and the intruder story was out and the south african police said that didn't come from us? >> it was an interesting story leading up to the olympics about a year and a half ago. the writer had gone to his home in pretoria and pistorious had talked to the writer about waking up in the middle the night and grabbing his gun because he thought he heard an intruder and taking sovalov out and tweeted about how much he enjoyed shooting. >> that's not reallynub for an athlete. he likes guns. but this is kind of interesting. >> i think in that case, it turned out to be the washing

machine or something. >> something, yeah >> bill: kind of makes lance armstrong look not so bad all of the sundayen. >> i am the bullet. from the website yesterday. >> really bad, really bad timing on that. >> you know, nike has had let's say, tiger woods. they have had joe paterno, who has a long-had a long-standing relationship with phil knight the nike chairman and of course, lance armstrong with whom they have parted company. they stayed with tiger the whole way. tiger is looking pretty good right now. >> yeah. nike has a track record of sort of standing by their athletes that are embroiled in connell tro versy. >> when you add all of that, when you add all of those up

what does it say about the world of sports? just that these are humans and that we should not really be putting them on pedestals or that they are more inclined because of their celebrity and the money they make? what does it tell you? >> for me and it's almost al cliche, you know, you don't really know people. you can write rehmams and reams of copy about people and you don't know them. there were all of these suspicions about lance armstrong but you couldn't prove anything because there were no test results. >> bill: plus he was a master liar? >> well, you know, and bullier. threatened you within an inch of your life if you dared cross his path or suggest that he wasn't, you know, mother teresa on a bike. you just don't know what goes on. as a journalist, you only very long access to them at their very best moments for a finite

amount of time. particularly with the olympics and the way nbc packages them, you only see the warm fuzzy great inspirational stories. >> we tend to put them to the pedestal. right? >> they do things we wouldn't dream of doing >> bill: we always have exalted. how many have fallen off of that pedestal. >> i am not going to ski down a slow the way lindsey von does. there is some chip there, a risk-acceptance chip that they have and we admire that in the people who do. you can take it to astronauts. imagine, you know, if you weren't a dare-driver's license and risk taker, you would never ex procedure space. >> what's done with lance armstrong? >> he would like to compete in try agent triathilons he hasn't

presented his appeal to try to get that restored. so, you know, they gave him i think an extra couple of weeks to present his case. what the does pistorius do? go to oprah. >> i think he will have to deal with the south african police. >> we are tweeting @bp show. i was looking at some pictures of him in court, pistorious until court. >> he broke down in court. yeah >> bill: the pictures, the perp walk with the hoodie. you mentioned one of the people talk about falling off of the pedestal, joe paterno. so his family is now out, saying that louie freis, his report unfairly criticized paterno and he didn't do what he should have done to report this early on. and they are determined they are going to bring joe paterno's

reputation back. >> yeah. really? >> i think there is a lot of paterno fatigue. judging from the comments i get on the blog and twitter i think people don't want to hear it. i think they have made up their minds about it and moved on. >> bill: after the sandusky time. >> the evidence that was piled up against paterno and the stories about paterno, i think it's a lost cause to try to repair that image? >> i think the bomb line is when he found out about the incident in the shower that michael year witnessing he did the bear minimum. >> right. >> he reported it to his superiors and then moved on and went back to focusing on winning games. to me, that's the most damming thing. you know, you can find evidence on either side. there are a lot of people who are trained and paid a lot of money to look for that and they will find it. but, you know, for me, that's the bottom line. >> yeah. i didn't think. >> you are told. >> call the police? >> or raise a bigger stink about that. i mean, this is a guy whether he

was who was a control freak. that was his university. he ran that place. i seriously doubt that anyone made a move in that football building he wasn't aware of in some fashion. you know, it's just incomprehensible he would sort of say, william, i told my bosses. yeah. okay. i am done. >> bill: talking sports with 7ed iboren at washington post.com, follow her on twitter @cindyboren, so the redskins had a big me meeting last night. the issue which keeps coming back: should the redskins and will they change their name? because it's a racist term.? are they going to? >> no. not yet. not in this universe. last night bruce allen w enrichment breaking ground on the new training camp. he was asked about that. he said, no, we are not going to

change it. maybe when rg vi is the quarterback or something. but i think what has changed about it is the presence of social media the instant feedback you get on the name. i mean, i think people are more aware of the conversation about the name. there was a column in the washington post 21 years ago. >> i remember it being around forever. >> by tony koinheiser. you could run the column tow tomorrow and it would be just as fresh as it was 21 years ago. he said, yeah, it should be changed. and but what's different now is that ran 21 years ago with no real feedback, no real conversation, and now, there is the conversation about it. and, you know, just as we are seeing with athletes you have brendan and just as with athletes and the growing ax

septemberance of there might be a gay guy in the locker room, maybe in another, you know, another few years, 10 years, you know, i think this issue might be where, you know, the issue of a possibly gay athlete was maybe seven or eight years ago. >> all right. we are talking sports with cindy boren here and you at 866-55-press. your favorite jock, bill press here this morning. [ music ] >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is "the bill press show." [ music ] (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. (vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of

marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. [ music ]

>> this is the full court press, the bill press shows, live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: here we go twelve minutes before the top of the hour, cindy boren, sports blogger for the washington post in studio with us. we are not the only sports fans around. win of the most unusual speeches ever heard on the floor of the united states senate yesterday barbara mcculsky singing the praises of her baltimore ravens. >> and i could not believe it. i thought the game was over. i was ready to kick back and call my sister when oh wow, there goes flacco for that 70-yard toss, and it was a touchdown. i am short and chunky but i was ready to do cart wheels around my condo that evening.

she is a sports fan. >> you talk about denver game. i was like a dope, i went to the washington wizards and the loudest cheer of the evening the loudest cheer of the evening, wild applause breaks out. nothing had happened. i realized that's when he hit that pass. >> it was unbelievable. >> she makes these bets on the games. who let the dogs out? she is great. it was a great moment for the ravens. he is very impressive guy. >> he is smart. >> very smart because he will know how to manage his money which most of these players -- >> you are right.

>> bill: -- don't. >> the problem isn't the money coming in. we make a lot of money but we spend a lot of money too. hopefully they will get the problem in the middle. >> michael jordan 13ing 50. >> >> why have i not read anything? >> i read it on your blog. >> the nba now is not as good as it was when michael jordan played. i think we can agree he is the greatest basketball player whoever live. how do you feel about the nba now in terms of talent that's out there? >> i think it's phenomenal. look at the run lebron james is on. >> you are watchinghit? >> he famously tweeted, i am not mj. i am lj. michael jordan could 3. that was pretty exciting. lebron james is doing it in a

more physical, strong dom nat way. purists and people who love the game, a great supporting cast with dwyane wade and chris bosch. >> i think he is a far better athlete than michael jordan. i think michael jordn a was a better basketball player. when you look at the raw physicality and the way lebron can play, he is amazing. i was watching him the other night. >> they demolished the thunder last night. they are killing all of the games in the west. >> the lakers. he turns 50 and gets his 50th sports illustrated cover. >> pretty cool. >> you only made it 35. you have a ways to go. >> you couldn't fly. >> bill: dominating. >> the covers, there is a link

on s.i. it's fascinating to look at all of them. >> bill: i used to have the hollogram. remember that? they had sportsman of the year and it had the weird little hollogram. >> have we ever had a president who is as big a sports fan as barack obama and really knows his stuff? >> oh, yeah. it's possible we did but he was a little more out there with the white sox and bears. >> when he talks basketball he knows what the had heell us talking about? >> and plays it. >> he spends a lot of time watching sports? >> it's funny to see the things he will pick up on, high school items and things like that. >> bill: let me tell you as part of the white house press

corps. he is at his best and enjoying his presidency the most when he welcomes teams to the white house. >> yeah >> bill: which he does as often as he can. at least at half a dozen times a year? >> it's most interesting ask youwhen you ask. i am premming addition. he seems to light up when he talks about sports and loosen up. going influence the motions. he is there. >> he didn't like the kiss cam at the wizards? >> that's right. he had to be coached into the kiss cam thing. >> that was bad? >> that was funny. >> his daughter pushed him. >> that was funny. >> so great to see you and have you in studio today. you have to follow sports. you've got to follow cindy boren on the washington post sports blog aat cindyboren is her twitterhandle and washington

washingtonpost.com. look for the early league sports blog. >> thank you. bill thank you cindy. >> heard on your radio and seen on current tv, this is "the bill press show." [ music ]

>> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> she's joy behar. >> and current will let me

say anything. >> only on current tv. >> a very busy schedule today that starts out with a daily briefing at name9:30 and welcomes the president of italy, the departing president of italy for a farewell meeting at the whitehouse. he will be there at the east room when he offers the 18

recipients of the 2012 presidential citizens' medal, leaves the white house after noon to go out to chicago where he will be speaking of strength anything the economy. you know he will talk about gun violence as well leave chicago and heads down to west palm beach, florida, where the president will be spending president's weekend. how appropriate that the president gets president's weekend off. he is going to spend it down in the west palm beach area of florida. we will be right back for another our of the full court press. >> this is the bill press"the bill press show" show."

[ music ] >> bill: good morning, everybody. happy friday, fred february 15th. welcome to the "full-court press" here on current tv across this great land of ours coast to coast this friday morning where there is a lot going on and lots to talk about. president obama on the road again today, first to chicago and then to west palm beach, florida. for the first time in history republicans have used a filibuster to block a something terri of defense, block any president's cabinet nominee. american airlines and u.s. air have merged to make the nation's largest airline and if that's not enough a whole gang of meteorites had a village in russia in the ural mountains. 400 people were injured. lots to talk about it. we will get to it lisa ferguson

has it. >> hey, bill. good morning everyone. president obama will haveuse his visit to chicago to talk more about gun control. most of the speech will tackle his policy for helping the poor and middle class but today's trip brings into the neighborhood a 15-year-old hydia pendleton, the young woman murdered a week after performing at the president's inauguration. he will use his moment to put a spot line on gun violence despite tough gun laws chicago has seen a recent explosion of violence under rom emmanuel. it makes today's trip particularly poignant. city leaders are publically hailing the visit. some worry it will be a grand gesture without leading to more legislation. obama is walking a fine line

between getting gun laws throughges and appeasing gun advocates and lobbying groups. during yesterday's google hangout, he admitted he does not think we should ban handguns only assault weapons and he wants to come up with a package that will reduce gun violence without losing second amendment rights. democrats are proposing al bull to avoid the sequester march 1st. it would raise $55,000,000,000 by taxing those making more than a million dollars a year. republicans not surprisingly expected to reject that. more bill press is coming up after the break. stay with us. we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy.

just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobster's lobsterfest. with the year's largest selection of mouth-watering lobster entrees. like our delicious lobster lover's dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. or our savory, new grilled maine lobster and lobster tacos. it's back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream. what's yours? come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. [clucking]. everyone wants to be the cadbury bunny. cause only he brings delicious cadbury crème eggs, while others may keep trying. nobunny knows easter better than cadbury!

[ music ] broadcasting across the fashion,

on your radio and on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> all right. oscar pistorious, the bladerunner, turns on you not such a good guy after all. hum? innocent untilproven guilty but it sure doesn't look good for the man we all salabsoluted as a hero not so long ago. here we go on the "full-court press" press". thanks for being part of the program. we invite you to be part of the program by letting us know what you think sounding off on the issues of the day. on phone, on twitter @bpshow. on facebook at facebook.com/bill facebook.com/billpressshow.

and a chat room going on simultaneous with the airing of the full court press, whether you are listening on your local progressive talk radio station or washtching on current tv, go to current.com and join your fellow "full-court press"ers across the land, have your own little conversation or debate about the issues while we are talking about them here on the air. great to see you today. tim mac from politico defense reporters going to be here to talk about the whole chuck hagle controversy and the republican successful efforts to block it with a filibuster yesterday. he will be along a little bit later in the hour. team press here taking over peter ogburn and dan henning. >> fill backert has the phones and sipcyprian boulding on the video cam as always. yesterday, chuck hagle blocked to being the new defense secretary. the old, the out going defense secretary, i should say, leon

panetta is haguenging it tup. yesterday, he gave his farewell news conference and says he envies hillary clinton because she is talking a long winter's nap and leon can't wait to join her. >> this is probably a good thing at this point in time that we have a chance to get some damn rest. she's made it. i am going to have as broad a smile as she does hopefully in a few days. >> he is ready to get out of there. he was talking about how excited he will be to get back to carmel california monterey college where he has the institute. i have been there several times, joined his program, thank to a kind invitation of leeon and

sylvia, good friends of mine. it's a great institute he's got. he started that when he resigned from the clinton white house as first budget director and then the chief of staff and was recruited back by president obama to be the head of the cia and then the defense secretary. and yesterday, talking about leaving, he had a hard time telling the staff at the pent pentagon what it meant to him. kind of cracked up a little bit. >> i have a hard time. i got my office is packed up. sylvia is packing at home. i am ready to go. it's like, all right. loose as a goose. >> upse that hagel can't come in and take over right now. he's got one foot out the door. >> office is packed up. house is all palked up.

lives on the hill. >> what a career? incredible career. >> that resume doesn't suck. >> no. he was i think maybe 15 years in congress, budget director for the president, white house chief of staff. rears and comes back, head of the cia, head of the defense department. >> you never get board. >> we could never convince leon to run for governor of california. he would have made a great governor. still time, sylvia might say not so fast. tim mac from politico joining us a little bit later. we learned a lot about the tea party in a new study. tell you all about that but first. >> this is the full court press. >> on this friday, other headlines making news, michael bloomberg. >> your two minutes? >> 11 minutes after the hour. michael bloomberg has fault salt, smoking, sodas and the

next thing he doesn't like that starts with the letter s, styrofoam, the new york times says bloomberg wants to ban poly styrofeme, because it needs to be processed separately. >> i love this. >> don't worry the coffee cup and doggy bag survive just fine >> what will they use instead of it? not plastic, i hope? >> they have those. he wants to go aheadet rid of these they have paper or plastic. plastic, you can recycle. >> i understand. the mayor is onto a good thing here. >> kim kardashian and kanye set off a security chair on tuesday, making a keithing flight. an airline employee led them to

a non-public area of the airport to expedite their boarding process, by passing the security checkpoint. the tsa none too happy about that move. they pulled them off of their airplane, screened them, caused a 50-minute flight delay and sent them on their way. they said no no, no, just because you are celebrities, you are no more important than everyone else. >> whatever airline employee did that ought to lose their job. kanye west. >> a bold statement from kevin youkilis who spent the majority of his career with the red sox before being traded he said i will always be a red sox. that's definitely not what any yankee fan wants to hear. he said, quote, to negate all of the years i have played for boston and all of the stuff i have piled up in my house, to

say i would throw it out the window, it's not true. he said those words, but he is ready for the next chapter >> bill: it seems to me if you move on to the new team, your loyalty is with the new team and fans and city. >> mine would be with whoever is paying me tens of millions of dollars. i will be pretty stinkin' loyal if you want to pay me that. >> thank you, dan. >> that's your two and a half minutes but you talked to long. >> bill: 13 minutes after the hour, yes indeed. got to talk about the tea party here people want us to believe the tea party is thundis wonderful, spontaneous, grist grassroots organization. these are citizenship who just couldn't table it anymore and

popped up in the summer of the 2009 in those town meetings that congress people were having around the country and it just became a movement. it was like god bless america, people wrapping themselves in the american flag and the old flag they call that, don't tread on me. i was -- i went to so many tea party rallies here in washington and down on the mall and everything. i said at the time, and i hate to say, like i told you so but this is phony baloney. right? now that's been confirmed. it has been confirmed in a new study that was just by the way action funded and paid for by the national cancer institute. you wonder what's that all about? it was published in a magazine called tobacco control past of the national institute of health. what they found, sure enough, and the reason this was published in the tobacco control

magazine is there is a direct link between the corporate interests in the tobacco industry who wanted us to believe there was no link at all between smoking and lung cancer there is a direct link between that crowd and the people who sponsored the tea party, mainly the koch brothers. so having spent all that money to try to deny the link between smoking and lung cancer then the coke brother come along. this is as early as 2002. the koch brothers want to convince people that there is nothing wrong with fossil fuels and we should not be making any attempt to have cleaner emissions or better standards for our cars and trucks or

import less foreign oil or go into solar fuel. no. fossil fuels because they own the refineries and the pipelines and so they don't want any change in direction in our fossil fuel economy. the koch brothers started up their operation. at first, it was called: citizens for a sound economy. they pumped up billions of dollars. where did the rest of it come from? tobacco industry. so, it was a corporate alliance between the tobacco industry and the koch brothers as far back as 2002. how are we going to accomplish this? the way they said they will accomplish this is build a get -- put it in quotation marks, grassroots organization. citizens for a sound economy was the first group. that ended because there were all kind of -- there is a big scandal with the funding of citizens or the way they were

spending their money. somebody, i think, embezzled some money from them or whatever, but they got a bad reputation. they were found to be committing some electioneering campaign financing hanky-panky out in the west so far. so they got rid of it and replaced it with two organizations: americans for prosperity, which still exists koch brothers, 100% and freedom works. they got dick army torun freedom works and those are the two coke organizations that are the direct descend ents of the to be tobacco industry. >> that's what the tea party -- it is no more -- it's astroturf, as a lot of people have said. it is not grass-receipts at all it's to be acco money and koch brothers. by the way, some of you may know that because you have read it in my book.

i detailed that history in my latest history, "the obama hate machine." i bet you we have a few more copies of this if you haven't read it. >> we do >> bill: go to our website, billpress.com. if you want a signed copy, i will just -- just follow the rumblings. i will sign it and send it right out to you. i love the fact that it just be is it -- this latest report, you know, just exposes the tea party for what it is. unfortunately, i think, a lot of americans got suckerred into it thinking this was a real grassroots movement. it wasn't. it was not from the very very beginning. it is all big business big kochingsz, big tobacco and big oil playing americans for suckers one more time. >> sad >> bill: yeah. and you add it up in its final

iteration. and what it is, is the obama hate machine. you know what? the koch brothers are still at it. you know they were certainly there in 2012 until force to try to devin president obama a second term, to try to elect as many pro-fossil fuel republicans to the house as and to the senate as they did and the koch brothers, they have their annual meeting once a year where they get their corporate buddies together. just one meeting in 2012, they raised $1 million to try to defeat barack obama. they are going to be up in full force force, you know it, next year. starting this year, rating money. next year in those races. i was glad -- i was glad to see this report. i am glad to see other people are talking about what i talked about. i hope more and more people will see: don't trust the tea party. if you see tea party, you don't see grassroots america.

when you see tea party what you see again is big tobacco and big oichlt we will be right back here on the "full-court press." >> this is "the bill press show." [ music ] documentaries... on current tv. for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy.

just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. [ music ] >> radio meets television "the bill press show," now on current tv. >> bill: here we go 24 minutes after the hour, on a friday february 15th, the beginning of the's day weekend. president obama says what the hell? if it's president's day weekend, i can take the weekend off. it's going to do just that, going down to west palm beach

florida and spending the rest of the weekend down there. i vent heard where the girls are this weekend. >> yeah >> bill: i don't know whether they will join him in to florida or maybe go off skiing because i think they have all next week off. private schools do. at any rate, did i mention, it's friday? which is an important day around "full-court press" because on friday, we love to look back at the week just ending and give you a favorite sound bytes of the week. we start at the bottom and work our way up to the today. yesterday, carnival cruise show has been towed back. they have landed in mobile alabama. passengers have disembarked. before they got there, the president of carnival jay cahill apologized for conditions on the ship. >> all i hear from carnival is happy about the conditions of the ship. we are very, very sorry about

what has taken place the there is no condition that conditions on board the ship were very challenging. >> challenging to say the least from what we have heard about conditions on that ship. sglshing the pop resigned this week. why did he resign? david litetter man has his theory. >> he has a chronic neck problem. chronic neck problem. and it just really drains him. he is constantly fatigued. spairnth the chronic neck problem is for looking the other way so many times. >> bill: took him a long time to get to that line. anyhow, he made the point, i believe. marco rubio tapped by republicans to give the republicans' state of the union response. well, he got into it. he had a lot to say. he had. >> in the short time i have been here in washington nothing has frustrated me more than false

choices light the one the president laid out tonight. then he disappears disappears. the choice between big government or big business. >> goes out without saying i'm sorry. i'm theist. barbara mcculsky. was she excited when the reins won the super bowl? >> oh, would you -- wow, there goes flacco for the 70 yard tus. i am short and chunky but i was ready to do cart wheels around my condo that evening. >> wow. wow. >> big news. flacco. president obama with a very powerful, emotional ending to his state of the union speech. >> number 1: gabby giffords deserves a vote. the families of newtown deserve a vote. the families of aurora deserve a

vote. the families of tucson and blacksberg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence they deserve a simple vote. >> yes, indeed a very powerful moment, a very powerful message on the president saying, you can vote no if you want to. i am not asking you necessarily. you have to vote for the assault weapons ban, although you should, but certainly, that idea and banning the high-capacity magazines as well as closing the loophole on the gun shows deserves a vote. >> this is "the bill press show." going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first

one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> monday show not on current tv but on all of our great local progressive talk radio stations women be here working every president's day as we have done for the last, i don't know action five or six years. i hope to see you or hope you -- on monday. put it that way. so big day yesterday in the senate. they weren't going to mess around, get this chuck hagle nomination over and dovrn with and get him to the penaltygon because leon panetta gave his farewell news conference. it would be right for chuck

hagel to be able to move in this weekend. not going to happen because republicans successfully filibustered that nomination and he fell one vote short of the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster and get an up-or-down vote. that and a lot of other issues impacting the pentagon in the senate these last couple of weeks. tim mac covers the defense issues on capitol hill for politico joining us in studio this morning. tim, good to see you. >> good morning. >> we have your colleague -- we had your colleague juana summers who covers the same for the house? >> she covers defense for the house. i cover defense for the senate. >> bill: hagel, is harry -- as harry reid said, i want to start by playing a quick clip from harry reid putting this in perspective. >> first time in the history of our country, a secretary of defense has been filibustered successfully.

>> a war going on, no secretary of defense. >> we have a defense secretary leon panetta who agreed to stay on until this is all dealt with. would it be helpful if the pentagon had certainty as to who is goingcoming in next? probably yes. republicans and democrats will eventually get around to doing this. it seems that although there was a set back yesterday, they are going to go back to it after the president's day recess. >> bill: they are now on recess. right? they couldn't do it today? >> the senators have all left town. >> bill: so there will be a vote when they come back which is the week after next? >> correct. correct. there is now a vote scheduled for february 26th, i believe, a tuesday after they come back. >> bill: so the count yesterday, there were 55 democrats or independents. and then there were four republicans who joined them. that made 59. >> uh-huh. >> in order to keep this issue alive the way the senate works, just so people understand, harry reid to had to vote no. so they actually had 59 votes,

but it looks like 58 because he voted no only so he could bring the issue back on february 20th. >> procedurally. >> all they need is one more republican vote. are they likely to get it? >> i think they are likely to get it. i think republicans have indicated that they are likely to get it. jop mccain and lindsey graham said yesterday they vet to vote for cloture when they come back. they had that time. whether you buy that argument or not. >> what did they gain by putting this off for 10 days? >> the thing is you have to realize from the very beginning, these conservative outside groups and republicans who oppose chuck hagel have understood that they are unlikely to mount a successful long-term offensive against him, that he is eventually going to be confirmed. so what's the point of opposing him at all? the point is to weaken him, to prevent him from being an effect i have secretary of defense once he gets to the pentagon and to make his term a short one. >> bill: well, couldn't it play the other way in the sense that, look, i think chuck hagel is a

great man. i have always admired chuck hagel like i used to once admire john mccain and bob kerry as a democrat for the same reasons. they are independent, and weren't bound to their party. they put the good of the nation above the party, willing to buck their party when they thought their party was wrong, like bob kerry did, like john mccain used to do, like chuck hagel did. couldn't it backfire them on this sense? he is going to be defense secretary. they are going to want stuff for him. they are going to want stuff for their district. they are going to want contracts for the district. they are going to want tours of the pentagon. chuck hagel is going to have a list of people who stabbed him in the back. right? >> right. they stabbed him in the front, i think. >> you are right. >> no screatus here yeah. thighs guys will -- i think that he probably sitting at how many today and over the president's day recess will be relishing the opportunity in the future should he have it to get these guys

crawling back to him begging for help if there are base closures, contracts being handed out, and they will need to work with him in the future. and that's actually like a real problem for some members of congress in their future relationship with chuck hagel. buck mcian, connell out straight against chuck hagel and say, i don't like this. the president should choose another nominee. how are they going to work together in the future in he's already made his opposition so clear? >> bill: one other way that seems to me this could backfire. i love your take on this. some day, even i have to admit as a yellow-dog democrat. some day, there will be another republican in the white house. right? i hope it doesn't happen in my lifetime, but it will happen. and there will be a democratic lee controlled congress. that president, new president will want to make had you or her

appointment. democrats have a granny light. >> you know whos make that exact point? one of the leaders of the filibuster, john mccain was make that point a few days ago. he was saying we shouldn't set this precedent, that we shouldn't set this precedent because in the future, there will be a republican in the white house. there might be a republican-controlled senate and that if we sdpil buster this, it's going to be a serious problem for them. that was a couple of days before he helped in a filibuster. >> how did he vote yesterday? >> he voted against ending debate on chuck hagel >> bill: he did not -- if he had voted the right way, defense secretary would be

secretary? >> he would probably be on his way to the. >> if you listen to what some people are saying, this isn't a filibuster. >> bill: they are saying it's not a filibuster. >> it's an exostencial question about what is a filibuster. >> if you need 60 votes, it's a filibuster. i am not going to get into that bs. why did they need more time? >> they have a letter from the white house on benghazi they want to review and they have additional questions about chuck hagel speeches and financial disclosures. >> bill: they keep moving the goalpost. not until hillary testifies. i am not jumping on you. i am saying nobody believes that built s. they just come up with something. they come up with something different every day you have the hagel issue. the other thing looming, i am sure, that may be more consequence is the sequester,

which at this point kicks in march 1st. right? so they are going to come back february 24th or 5th or whatever and facing a trillion dollars across the board including $500,000,000,000 in the pentagon slashed. right? which really will impact or will it impact our redadiness? >> it certainly already has begun impacting ness the navy air force, march eanes and army have laid out different ways in which they are preparing for sec westration involving deferd maintenance, less training for people, lower times for flight hours. it already is impacting because the pentagon is such a large part of these cuts. >> uh-huh. >> half of these cuts. and so they are really girding themselves for a difficult year ahead. >> bill: well how can, back to the republican party, which is leading the -- which is blocking any attempt, i think the president put forward, democrats will come up with a plan.

the president has a plan, with a balanced approach of new revenue and spending cuts to avoid the sequester. republicans opposing it. how could republicans who preach and brag about being pro-defense and pro-military stand by and allow half a billion dollar -- i mean a billion -- no. half a trillion dollars in cuts across the board to the pentagon? >> well, you know, lights remember -- >> how do they defend that? >> everyone has put forward some sort of plan. republicans put forward plan. democrats have put forward a plan. they are not looking together. they are not looking at each other and saying let's sit down and go through the numbers and figure out a way that works for both of us. no one is cooperating on this. republicans have a plan to offset sequestration >> bill: social security and medicare the most recent plan is for them to reduce the federal work force to attrition and that will get us to the end of the fiscal year. democrats released their plan yesterday, which is equally

unpalatable to republicans. deeper defense cuts in future years, cuts to ag subsidies and the buffett rule being implemented. they are proposing plans that are off of the table for the other side just to say that they have a plan >> bill: bottom line, then, we will see the sequester? >> these things always have a way of sneaking up on your deadline that when there is, you know 48 hours, everyone wakes up and realizes oh, my god, we've got deep cuts everywhere and we have got no way to control it and it's automatic and it's going to happen. so we've got to address it. >> that's the way we dealt with it the last time on the fiscal cliff and i imagine there will be some, you know very late nights in the lead up to march 1st >> bill: it will not happen, is what you are saying? >> what i am saying is that right now, they are not talking to each other. they will probably feel more compelled to talk to each other

when the clock is ticking and the pressure is on >> bill: i had add to your probably i think it's 50/50 right now. if it works out that way all they will do is i hate to use the phrase but kick the can down the road. they are not going to resolve it. we will put it off for three months or six months. they just put it off for two months. now, the two months is up. this time we will put it up for, i don't know, five or six. we will see how it goes. tim mak covers defense issues for politico on the senate side. lots of good stuff to talk about. your questions welcome at 866-55-press. we will be back on the "full-court press." >> this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. [clucking]. everyone wants to be the cadbury bunny. cause only he brings delicious cadbury crème eggs, iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block.

>> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. [clucking]. everyone wants to be the cadbury bunny. cause only he brings delicious cadbury crème eggs, while others may keep trying. nobunny knows easter better than cadbury!

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>> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is "the bill press show". >> twelve minutes now to go before the top of the hour. the beginning for us of the president's day weekend. [to have you with us today here on your local progressive talk radio station. in studio with us, he covers a defense -- defense issues for politico, tim mak. good to see you. >> on twitter @bp show. dems won't filibuster. they are too nice. they got what they deserved in this case. >> that point later this morning, you can blame the republicans but if harry reid had held tight for a really really good filibuster reform this could not have happened. >> john says republicans just want another 10 days to inflict damage on hagel.

>> yeah. >> imzadi says oh, i didn't realize tim mak is such a cutie. aria says he needs to be on stream more. hey now. >> the fan club emerges for tim mak. >> i can't stand it. >> this has been a running theme all weekend. >> this has been a running theme. we have these young guides in. i am not filling the love. >> i just don't read them to you. >> well, congratulations. we will give out tim's personal e-mail. >> $2 for a bumper sticker. >> personal e-mail and home telephone number. we will put it on our website. >> dillon buyers when he comes on, he gets love letters. tomasci. who was it the other day? somebody else was in. it happens to everybody but me. >> somebody said they wanted to rub stan kolandar's ball head.

i guess that's a compliment. >> there you go. tim, i want to ask you overall. all of this talk about the defense bucket drives me crazy in the sense that in defect one of our guests recently said -- made the point that there was a good side to the 6 quester, too, to the sense thatwe should be cutting the defense bucket. we are cutting two wars and people are bitching about there should be some cuts in the defense budget. what has it? doubled? >> high office you include spending on the war in afghanistan, we are looking at $650,000,000,000. it's very expensepi particularly -- and the thing about sec restoration is it's already forced as we were talking about, already forced the military to make drastic changes. >> a general proposition that if we end two wars, the defense

budget ought to go down, not stay where it is or certainly not go up. correct? is anybody talking about that? >> i think that's one of the argumentses among, you know, tea party conservatives who are supportive of sec westration and some of the more liberal people who are supportive of sec westration is that we do need cuts and that the pentagon should be shrinking. the question is whether secuestration is the right way to do it. >> bill: it's a meat ax. right? >> you can't build 91% of a ship. you just don't build a ship. >> yeah. >> it's very difficult for different agencies to plan. of course we are not just talking about the defense department. we are talking about every agency. >> bill: but i think sometimes that donald rumsfeld who i think was a disaster as a defense secretary did have something going when he talked about a lienor military and a smaller

military and a more efficient military. isn't that where we ought to be heading in the 21st century? not thinking that we keep building every battleship we can or every bomber we can or every fighter plane we can? >> right. that seems -- the military seems poised to do two major things. it seems to try to pivot towards a more asia-focus, to pivot the passiffic away from the east and, also to empower special ops units, smaller footprints. when there is a crisis we will send a seal team otherr other special forces to deal with it and not sinned the marines or the army >> bill: look what we did in libya. recently in mali we provided support but we didn't send in the marines. isn't that kind of if there is an obama foreign doctorine?

>> it would be drones and it would be a smaller footprint for engagements overseas. those are two of the hallmarks. he doesn't want to put large numbers of americans on the line for these kinds of things. maybe there hasn't been that opportunity arise for him to do that. his general thinking is it should be a smaller footprint. >> tim mac predicts chuck hagel when will be confirmed. stay staytude. tim, we will hold you to it. thank you for coming in today. thanks for your good work. >> thank you >> bill: good to see you. >> good luck fighting through the throngs of women? >> i am practicing my swim moves. >> bill: i will be back with a parting shot. >> this is "the full court press: the bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv.

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[ music ] >> the parting shot with bill press, this is "the bill press show." >> bill: well, you know, it's been a busy week. i mean the senate voted to extend the violence against women act. christopher dorner tracked down in big bear california. president obama giving one hell of a news conference but the news from joan the last time a pope resigned was 1415. a lot of speculation about why benedict stepped down. i think he feels too old for the job.